Our last 2 days of our trio of a lifetime were spent in Los Angeles, home of our trusty tour guide, Mr Wu! We arrived at 10:30am local time on Friday morning, which was another time confusion moment for all, it was a 5 hr flight but we landed 2 hrs later! Which is a good thing don't get me wrong cause we get 3 hrs longer in LA but not so great on the bodies!!!! Anyhow, mr wu picked us up in a big van and we headed straight for our hotel, which was conveniently located a stones throw from the airport, dumped our bags in our room, and we were off! We were hollywood bound ( that's where mr wu lives), the sight of that big white Hollywood sign is so exciting, why I dont know ? We picked up Gerrod and Pam and set off for some sight seeing. We did the Hollywood sign, the sunset boulevard, that was amazing! The into Beverly hills and the made our way to Santa Monica. The Santa Monica pier is pretty cool, as is the beach, not like our beaches but still a very nice place to be. The kids did the roller coaster there, lexi and I rode the worlds longest ferris wheel ( or as lexi calls it, the fairy wheel). mr wu took the kids to play a game while lexi and I were still not he ferris wheel (does this thing ever end???) and kalahni won a toy, yay just what we needed! Lol. Ice creams all round then a walk along the beach side. The kids had some fun on the equipment they provide for the locals to exercise on, I watched and ate ice cream! ;)
Back to Hollywood for dinner, we decided a BBQ on the roof of mr wu's appartment block was th go, so we stopped at Ralph's (woolies) for some groceries and grog and headed for the apartment. The view from the rooftop looking over the city was just beautiful, the sun was setting in the hills and the LAPD chopper flying overhead really helped set the mood. Lexi was asleep before dinner was ready, poor thing, the kids are really feeling it now and kai is getting sick. So straight after dinner we drove back to our hotel , about 30mins from Hollywood. Glenn thought his driving days were over, but noooooo we were at it again him driving and me navigating, we make a good time me thinks, though the kids may not agree! Lol
By the time we reached our hotel all 4 kids were unconscious!!!!! Thank goodness we decided to meet at 10 the following morning and not earlier, I don't know that these munchkins would cope.
Saturday morning we were rudely awoken at 6:30am by the alarm on the cell phone that Janet and peter had been using, I must remember to thank Pete when I see him for keeping that alarm set!!!!! It took a bit to get the kids started, kai was awake anyway as his throat was giving him curry :( downstairs for brekky and then packed and in The car headed for Hollywood by 9:20am! we met Mr Wu, Gerrod and Pam at the apartment and headed out for the day. We took the scenic route up into the hills, there were some biiiiig houses up there, and then down through Beverly hills, very pretty I must say. The homes of the famous are in gated communities so you can't see those, but what we did see was very impressive. The it was time for the kids surprise! Mr Wu had arranged with a friend who owns a gym for the kids to go and participate in a silks class and for kai to learn some tips from the owner, a 3 time world kickboxing champion and UFC fighter etc etc, (please don't quote me those stats could be wrong) punching
and kicking on the bags. The kids had a ball on the silks, kalahni was in her element! And the Kai had a quick lesson on punching and kicking once they had finished, was funny to watch Ronan pitting him through his paces, but he loved evey minute of it! From there we headed to the grove, an outdoor shopping centre, for some lunch and a look around. We left there with full tummies and 4 backpacks, 2 Hurley, 1 DC and 1 fox for $60!!!!! Guess what the kids are taking on the plane???? We head back to Gerrod and pams hotel and pick up their luggage, Mr Wu says " any last requests?" Glenn responds with " yep the tri shop!" that's in Santa Monica but off we go and thank goodness we did! It had everything he wanted, his tri suit, helmet my aero bars, so we both left happy happy happy! Straight back to our hotel to get our bags and get to the airport, which is where I am now standing in the gangway about to board my flight home! It has been a fantastic 3 weeks, I will do a wrap up once I'm home and coherent! ;)
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Disney cruising!!!
Well hello there! Did you miss me? I sure missed writing and my Facebook, and clearly fb missed me, I had 18 msg's when we pulled into port! Lol
So for the last 4 days we have been cruising the Bahamas aboard the Dream, Disneys newest vessel, it had it's maiden voyage in February this year, so she's a brand spanker!and I tell you now she is beautiful! Now the last time I cruised I was about 5 and we went on the fairstar so my expectations were pretty limited, so when I walked onto the dream like an excited kid in a lolly shop, she absolutely took my breath away. The lobby was just stunning, the tiles, carpet, staircase, everything about her was just impeccable and I fell in love. It's just a ship! I hear you say, but honestly I've never seen anything like it! The memories I take away with me are memories that will last forever (or until my next Disney cruise!!)
Let me take you back to the beginning, and honestly our Disney cruise experience started from the moment we drove through the gates. The staff were so welcoming and friendly , as we came up the escalators up into the check in area we were greeted by 2 ladies with huge Mickey hands on waving and smiling and instantly we felt like family. Minnie was over by a huge replica of the dream having photos so we lined up and had ours too, even the damn characters are warm and friendly , I even found myself wanting to give her a big hug (to my disappointment she brushed me). We checked , got our 'key to the world' or room key come charge key, the. I took the kids to get their Mickey bands on. Now the Mickey bands are what the kids under 10 wear that are using the kids club. It gets put on at the beginning of the trip and then it's not removed until the last night when you take them out of the club for the last time (or unless your name is kai and you lose yours in the pool somewhere!). I will explain more about the kids club further along.
Once we boarded we had about an hour before our rooms were due to be ready, so we took a bit of a look around and then headed for level 11, that's where the pool and aqua duck (waterslide) and eateries are. We had no sooner stepped onto the deck and "cocktail for the ladies?" my response " ah is the pope a catholic?!!!!" and so begins my relationship with the poolside waiters and my 'key to the world'!!!!! ;) lunch is next on the agenda, we were starving, so cabanas was the buffet restaurant for us! And so began my relationship with buffets! The food was spectacular, veggies for the first time since we got here, the americnas don't really do veggies, even the kids grabbed some! We sat out on the deck and enjoyed our lunch and cocktails, had a look around and the kids were off to the pool or should I say pools! 2 pools to choose from, a waterslide, the aqua duck (that's the waterslide that goes around the top of the boat and at pone point you go out over the side of the boat, very cool indeed!) and nemos play area for the under 8's. Whilst the kids played Glenn and I went and unpacked and checked out the room, very nice and quite roomy. The lounge flipped over to create a bed, another pulled out from the ceiling and ours was a king size! Which was like a marshmallow, ahhhh heaven!
So an hr before sailing we had to do the safety spiel, kinda like the one you get before you fly, then it was up onto the deck for the best viewing point for our sail off (similar to take off I guess??? Lol) beers and cocktails were a plenty, I told you my relationship with my key to the world card started early! The horn sounded, and not just any old horn, it's Disney after all! It's "when you wish upon a star" from Cinderella! Janet was a little disappointed she likes the big 'hooooonk', but I thought it was quite fitting.
Our dinner sitting for the cruise was at 8:15 so the kids swam till about 6, a quick shower and the. Up to kids club for a bit before dinner. Now kids club is not your average kids club! It's larger than most child care centers, it has state of the art facilities, interactive computers etc etc. The kids Mickey bands are what they use to sign in, they just scan them and theyre off! Arts crafts games characters computers you name it they had it! Then when it was time to pick them up we gave their name, they brought them up on the computer and through the Mickey bands they could tell us where they were! Upon exiting we swiped our key to the world, gave the password and the kids swiped their Mickey bands once more and hey presto they were signed out! So easy so efficient and so safe!
Dinner for our first night was in animators palate, a very fun and interactive restaurant! The 2 older girls missed this restaurant because they were up on deck 11 having their hair braided, I just went to one of the food outlets and grabbed them a burger, grabbed them a drink (which was bottomless and available the whole trip as was the ice cream machine) and they sat there munching away while we had our dinner downstairs. So the interactive restaurant, every wall had a large screen on it with the characters of nemo swimming around, next thing I hear crush (the turtle) talking and I though oh that's cool, until I realized he was actually talking to the man that was seated at the table in front of the screen he was on! He'd ask him questions and then answer him, it was unreal, then he'd jump to another screen and harass some other diner, the kids thought it was great! At the end of our dinner he had us up dancing, so much fun! We met the girls up on deck 11 then they all headed back to kids club for a little bit, it was 10:30 but it's open till 1am!!!!! While they played Glenn and I went for a little explore, so much to see and do on this boat. 11:15 we pick the kids up and bed! That ends day 1!
Day 2 - Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas
When we wake up we are pulling in to port, so we head up to Cabanas for our buffet breakfast, and are greeted with copious amounts of food, including doughnuts!!!! Which my kids took full advantage of, ONLY CAUSE YOU'RE ON HOLIDAYS!!!! Lol, by the last day I had one too! When in Rome! ;) so breakfast was scrummy and then we head out for a day in Nassau (well we thought it was going to be a whole day). The minute we stepped foot onto Bahamian soil we were annoyed by the locals with "you want a taxi" "you want to take the kids here" "you buy the kids this" ahhhhhhhh leave me alone!!!!! As we walked down the streets the kids were very uneasy and kept asking when we could go back on the boat. I did a quick shop, some cheap clinique makeup, and we took them back, they really did t like it, and Nassau really wasn't a very nice place. Cabanas buffet the pool and aqua duck were calling so that's how we spent the rest of the day, oh and of course cocktails and beers! Janet and Peter hired mopeds and drove around and apparently Nassau wasn't much nicer any further out, so going back onto the boat wasn't a bad decision. By 6pm the kids were back in kids club and by 7 Glenn and I and Janet and Peter were enjoying a cocktail in an adults only cocktail bar, very swish. We pick the kids up and head to the Enchanted Garden for dinner. Now every night may have been a different restaurant but our waiters followed us, so every night we had the same people serving us, it was great, by the end of the cruise we had developed quite a relationship with our head waiter, Adanna she is from Trinidad and she took quite a liking to the kids, as did they with her. Again after dinner the kids went back up to KC and Glenn and I did some more exploring, I told you this was a big ship, and even to this day there are still bars and clubs we didn't even see! We pick the kids up around 11 and that ends day 2.
Day 3- Castaway Cay
Castaway Cay is an island in the Bahamas, but this island is owned by Disney and is exclusively for Disney cruises! It reminded us all of Fiji, the clear blue water the palm trees, the sun, ahhh the list goes on and on. Now because it's a Disney island it was just like being on the boat, all the food and drink you wanted. All we had to pay for was rental os snorkeling gear, tubes and floats to relax in the sea with and the watersport equipment. We had a great day, swimming snorkelling, the kids and Peter enjoyed the waterslide, and of course the ice cream machine!!!! They all gave that a nudge, not me, I didn't have any, not
one! We had to be back on ship by 3:30 for a 5pm sail off! Not that any of us wanted to leave castaway, it was so beautiful! Pool and aqua duck were on The agenda once again and quite possibly cocktails too!! When we got back to our rooms there was a little surprise waiting for us, 4 pirate bandanas cause it was pirate party night!!!! Basically everyone dresses up in pirate attire and they have a pirate show with all the characters and then at 10:30 pm they have a fireworks show. That was a fun night, a bit too much for some, lexi fell asleep at dinner :( and missed the fireworks, pretty cool shooting off the ship really! And that brings day 3 to a close.
Day 4 - day at sea
A nice relaxing day, or so I thought! Janet and I and the 2 older girls were booked in at the day spa for pedicures (charli a manicure) but being the last day there were all these things we had to fit in! First up brekky at cabanas then kai and lexi took off to the pool. The girls retreated to the room for a bit of r&r. 12.00 pm saw the girls off to the spa for a bit of pampering, 12:15 was the character dance party in the lobby. Lexi and I got our groove on with goofy Mickey Donald and daisy, that was a bit of fun! 1:15 was the princess meet and greet but nor before I raced back up to pick my 2 princesses up from the day spa. Glenn and lexi waited in line, and thank goodness, by the time I got back the line up was wrapping it's way around the ship! Girls and their princesses! Kai took off with with kalahni and charli to the pool, I left Glenn with lexi for the princess meet and greet and retreated to the day spa for my pedi, ahhhh bliss. The only pedicure I've had looking out over the ocean, and there was nothing but ocean to be seen. Janet joined me half way through, then left her to enjoy her pampering and went and met up with the family at the pool. From there it was time to head to the rooms to pack up and get ready for the Disney believe show and dinner. Our bags had to be out between 8:30 and 10:30 and seeing as though we had a 8:15 dinner sitting we had to get that done early. Before dinner however we took ourselves off to the Walt Disney theatre, now I'm talking state of the art theatre and production! Something we'd definately pay money to see in Sydney, and the think state theatre, theatre royal, take your pick, this thing was fancy smancy, and clearly cruising had agreed with Glenn as he rocked up with bare feet! Lol
The show was great, lots of characters for the kids to see, like they needed to see anymore, it was all about a father who didn't believe in magic, very entertaining.
Dinner for us tonight was at palo, a restaurant just for adults that we had to pre book and pay a little extra for. Our plans were to grab the kids a bite to eat up on deck 11 and than drop them off at KC, but the night before at dinner our hostess insisted that the children still join her in the dining room and she would look after them and return them to kids club! Wow what service, the kids thought they were the bees knees dining on their own!later when we picked them up kalahni told me the head dining room man had taken them up, certainly can't complain about the service!
So our dinner at Palo was just amazing, we started in the adjoining bar for a cocktail, imagine that, pomegranate passions were the drink of the night, yum yum! We ended up with an Aussie waitress and her service was just perfect, as was the food. We all left very full but had a great last night together. We picked the kids up, kalah I was a little under the weather, our last night the boat got a bit of a sway up, I'm glad it was the last night cause the motion wasn't much and kalahni felt quite ill. She went off to bed as did lexi, I think she was aleep before her head hit the pillow, so I stayed at the room while Glenn took kai and charli for a night ride on the aqua duck. They weren't gone long, it was quite breezy up on deck and it was about 11:30 pm! And day 4 draws to a close
Day 5 - disembarkment
A sad day, we really didn't want to get off! The service the staff the amenities , everything was just perfect, not a thing out of place the whole time, I never saw a bit of rubbish, a dirty bathroom, there was always someone cleaning something! But all good things must come to an end. No cabanas this morning, we all had to eat in the restaurant we ate at the night before, and for us that was the royal palace (well the kids anyhow) we bid farewell to our wonderful hostess, hugs all round, she complimented me on my parenting skills, then informed me that when she has children she will give them to me! I really wanted to say no worries cause you'll have little black babies , but obviously I didn't, I thanked her for her wonderful compliment. Sadly we moved off the ship and out to our Avis car rental shuttle. We picked up our 11 seater bus! And headed back to orlando. We dropped Janet and Peter off at the outlets, yes they still had shopping to do, ourselves, if we ever see a mall again it'll be too soon! Lol. We headed to downtown Disney for lunch and then it was back to epcot! I did some calculations and realized that we still had one day to use our passes, sooooo much to glenn's disgust we headed back to the theme parks! We chose epcot because there was one ride we didn't get to experience, soarin! Another virtual ride that takes you 'soarin' over California, a well done ride, very spectacular!
We picked up Janet and Peter and headed for our hotel at the airport, Denny's for dinner then bed, we all had early wake ups to be at the airport, which is where I am now quickly finishing off this blog before our flight boards to LA, which is just about too soooooo
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx
So for the last 4 days we have been cruising the Bahamas aboard the Dream, Disneys newest vessel, it had it's maiden voyage in February this year, so she's a brand spanker!and I tell you now she is beautiful! Now the last time I cruised I was about 5 and we went on the fairstar so my expectations were pretty limited, so when I walked onto the dream like an excited kid in a lolly shop, she absolutely took my breath away. The lobby was just stunning, the tiles, carpet, staircase, everything about her was just impeccable and I fell in love. It's just a ship! I hear you say, but honestly I've never seen anything like it! The memories I take away with me are memories that will last forever (or until my next Disney cruise!!)
Let me take you back to the beginning, and honestly our Disney cruise experience started from the moment we drove through the gates. The staff were so welcoming and friendly , as we came up the escalators up into the check in area we were greeted by 2 ladies with huge Mickey hands on waving and smiling and instantly we felt like family. Minnie was over by a huge replica of the dream having photos so we lined up and had ours too, even the damn characters are warm and friendly , I even found myself wanting to give her a big hug (to my disappointment she brushed me). We checked , got our 'key to the world' or room key come charge key, the. I took the kids to get their Mickey bands on. Now the Mickey bands are what the kids under 10 wear that are using the kids club. It gets put on at the beginning of the trip and then it's not removed until the last night when you take them out of the club for the last time (or unless your name is kai and you lose yours in the pool somewhere!). I will explain more about the kids club further along.
Once we boarded we had about an hour before our rooms were due to be ready, so we took a bit of a look around and then headed for level 11, that's where the pool and aqua duck (waterslide) and eateries are. We had no sooner stepped onto the deck and "cocktail for the ladies?" my response " ah is the pope a catholic?!!!!" and so begins my relationship with the poolside waiters and my 'key to the world'!!!!! ;) lunch is next on the agenda, we were starving, so cabanas was the buffet restaurant for us! And so began my relationship with buffets! The food was spectacular, veggies for the first time since we got here, the americnas don't really do veggies, even the kids grabbed some! We sat out on the deck and enjoyed our lunch and cocktails, had a look around and the kids were off to the pool or should I say pools! 2 pools to choose from, a waterslide, the aqua duck (that's the waterslide that goes around the top of the boat and at pone point you go out over the side of the boat, very cool indeed!) and nemos play area for the under 8's. Whilst the kids played Glenn and I went and unpacked and checked out the room, very nice and quite roomy. The lounge flipped over to create a bed, another pulled out from the ceiling and ours was a king size! Which was like a marshmallow, ahhhh heaven!
So an hr before sailing we had to do the safety spiel, kinda like the one you get before you fly, then it was up onto the deck for the best viewing point for our sail off (similar to take off I guess??? Lol) beers and cocktails were a plenty, I told you my relationship with my key to the world card started early! The horn sounded, and not just any old horn, it's Disney after all! It's "when you wish upon a star" from Cinderella! Janet was a little disappointed she likes the big 'hooooonk', but I thought it was quite fitting.
Our dinner sitting for the cruise was at 8:15 so the kids swam till about 6, a quick shower and the. Up to kids club for a bit before dinner. Now kids club is not your average kids club! It's larger than most child care centers, it has state of the art facilities, interactive computers etc etc. The kids Mickey bands are what they use to sign in, they just scan them and theyre off! Arts crafts games characters computers you name it they had it! Then when it was time to pick them up we gave their name, they brought them up on the computer and through the Mickey bands they could tell us where they were! Upon exiting we swiped our key to the world, gave the password and the kids swiped their Mickey bands once more and hey presto they were signed out! So easy so efficient and so safe!
Dinner for our first night was in animators palate, a very fun and interactive restaurant! The 2 older girls missed this restaurant because they were up on deck 11 having their hair braided, I just went to one of the food outlets and grabbed them a burger, grabbed them a drink (which was bottomless and available the whole trip as was the ice cream machine) and they sat there munching away while we had our dinner downstairs. So the interactive restaurant, every wall had a large screen on it with the characters of nemo swimming around, next thing I hear crush (the turtle) talking and I though oh that's cool, until I realized he was actually talking to the man that was seated at the table in front of the screen he was on! He'd ask him questions and then answer him, it was unreal, then he'd jump to another screen and harass some other diner, the kids thought it was great! At the end of our dinner he had us up dancing, so much fun! We met the girls up on deck 11 then they all headed back to kids club for a little bit, it was 10:30 but it's open till 1am!!!!! While they played Glenn and I went for a little explore, so much to see and do on this boat. 11:15 we pick the kids up and bed! That ends day 1!
Day 2 - Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas
When we wake up we are pulling in to port, so we head up to Cabanas for our buffet breakfast, and are greeted with copious amounts of food, including doughnuts!!!! Which my kids took full advantage of, ONLY CAUSE YOU'RE ON HOLIDAYS!!!! Lol, by the last day I had one too! When in Rome! ;) so breakfast was scrummy and then we head out for a day in Nassau (well we thought it was going to be a whole day). The minute we stepped foot onto Bahamian soil we were annoyed by the locals with "you want a taxi" "you want to take the kids here" "you buy the kids this" ahhhhhhhh leave me alone!!!!! As we walked down the streets the kids were very uneasy and kept asking when we could go back on the boat. I did a quick shop, some cheap clinique makeup, and we took them back, they really did t like it, and Nassau really wasn't a very nice place. Cabanas buffet the pool and aqua duck were calling so that's how we spent the rest of the day, oh and of course cocktails and beers! Janet and Peter hired mopeds and drove around and apparently Nassau wasn't much nicer any further out, so going back onto the boat wasn't a bad decision. By 6pm the kids were back in kids club and by 7 Glenn and I and Janet and Peter were enjoying a cocktail in an adults only cocktail bar, very swish. We pick the kids up and head to the Enchanted Garden for dinner. Now every night may have been a different restaurant but our waiters followed us, so every night we had the same people serving us, it was great, by the end of the cruise we had developed quite a relationship with our head waiter, Adanna she is from Trinidad and she took quite a liking to the kids, as did they with her. Again after dinner the kids went back up to KC and Glenn and I did some more exploring, I told you this was a big ship, and even to this day there are still bars and clubs we didn't even see! We pick the kids up around 11 and that ends day 2.
Day 3- Castaway Cay
Castaway Cay is an island in the Bahamas, but this island is owned by Disney and is exclusively for Disney cruises! It reminded us all of Fiji, the clear blue water the palm trees, the sun, ahhh the list goes on and on. Now because it's a Disney island it was just like being on the boat, all the food and drink you wanted. All we had to pay for was rental os snorkeling gear, tubes and floats to relax in the sea with and the watersport equipment. We had a great day, swimming snorkelling, the kids and Peter enjoyed the waterslide, and of course the ice cream machine!!!! They all gave that a nudge, not me, I didn't have any, not
one! We had to be back on ship by 3:30 for a 5pm sail off! Not that any of us wanted to leave castaway, it was so beautiful! Pool and aqua duck were on The agenda once again and quite possibly cocktails too!! When we got back to our rooms there was a little surprise waiting for us, 4 pirate bandanas cause it was pirate party night!!!! Basically everyone dresses up in pirate attire and they have a pirate show with all the characters and then at 10:30 pm they have a fireworks show. That was a fun night, a bit too much for some, lexi fell asleep at dinner :( and missed the fireworks, pretty cool shooting off the ship really! And that brings day 3 to a close.
Day 4 - day at sea
A nice relaxing day, or so I thought! Janet and I and the 2 older girls were booked in at the day spa for pedicures (charli a manicure) but being the last day there were all these things we had to fit in! First up brekky at cabanas then kai and lexi took off to the pool. The girls retreated to the room for a bit of r&r. 12.00 pm saw the girls off to the spa for a bit of pampering, 12:15 was the character dance party in the lobby. Lexi and I got our groove on with goofy Mickey Donald and daisy, that was a bit of fun! 1:15 was the princess meet and greet but nor before I raced back up to pick my 2 princesses up from the day spa. Glenn and lexi waited in line, and thank goodness, by the time I got back the line up was wrapping it's way around the ship! Girls and their princesses! Kai took off with with kalahni and charli to the pool, I left Glenn with lexi for the princess meet and greet and retreated to the day spa for my pedi, ahhhh bliss. The only pedicure I've had looking out over the ocean, and there was nothing but ocean to be seen. Janet joined me half way through, then left her to enjoy her pampering and went and met up with the family at the pool. From there it was time to head to the rooms to pack up and get ready for the Disney believe show and dinner. Our bags had to be out between 8:30 and 10:30 and seeing as though we had a 8:15 dinner sitting we had to get that done early. Before dinner however we took ourselves off to the Walt Disney theatre, now I'm talking state of the art theatre and production! Something we'd definately pay money to see in Sydney, and the think state theatre, theatre royal, take your pick, this thing was fancy smancy, and clearly cruising had agreed with Glenn as he rocked up with bare feet! Lol
The show was great, lots of characters for the kids to see, like they needed to see anymore, it was all about a father who didn't believe in magic, very entertaining.
Dinner for us tonight was at palo, a restaurant just for adults that we had to pre book and pay a little extra for. Our plans were to grab the kids a bite to eat up on deck 11 and than drop them off at KC, but the night before at dinner our hostess insisted that the children still join her in the dining room and she would look after them and return them to kids club! Wow what service, the kids thought they were the bees knees dining on their own!later when we picked them up kalahni told me the head dining room man had taken them up, certainly can't complain about the service!
So our dinner at Palo was just amazing, we started in the adjoining bar for a cocktail, imagine that, pomegranate passions were the drink of the night, yum yum! We ended up with an Aussie waitress and her service was just perfect, as was the food. We all left very full but had a great last night together. We picked the kids up, kalah I was a little under the weather, our last night the boat got a bit of a sway up, I'm glad it was the last night cause the motion wasn't much and kalahni felt quite ill. She went off to bed as did lexi, I think she was aleep before her head hit the pillow, so I stayed at the room while Glenn took kai and charli for a night ride on the aqua duck. They weren't gone long, it was quite breezy up on deck and it was about 11:30 pm! And day 4 draws to a close
Day 5 - disembarkment
A sad day, we really didn't want to get off! The service the staff the amenities , everything was just perfect, not a thing out of place the whole time, I never saw a bit of rubbish, a dirty bathroom, there was always someone cleaning something! But all good things must come to an end. No cabanas this morning, we all had to eat in the restaurant we ate at the night before, and for us that was the royal palace (well the kids anyhow) we bid farewell to our wonderful hostess, hugs all round, she complimented me on my parenting skills, then informed me that when she has children she will give them to me! I really wanted to say no worries cause you'll have little black babies , but obviously I didn't, I thanked her for her wonderful compliment. Sadly we moved off the ship and out to our Avis car rental shuttle. We picked up our 11 seater bus! And headed back to orlando. We dropped Janet and Peter off at the outlets, yes they still had shopping to do, ourselves, if we ever see a mall again it'll be too soon! Lol. We headed to downtown Disney for lunch and then it was back to epcot! I did some calculations and realized that we still had one day to use our passes, sooooo much to glenn's disgust we headed back to the theme parks! We chose epcot because there was one ride we didn't get to experience, soarin! Another virtual ride that takes you 'soarin' over California, a well done ride, very spectacular!
We picked up Janet and Peter and headed for our hotel at the airport, Denny's for dinner then bed, we all had early wake ups to be at the airport, which is where I am now quickly finishing off this blog before our flight boards to LA, which is just about too soooooo
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Shopping shopping shopping!!!!
Today, Saturday Oct 1st is our last day in Orlando, we have exhausted the parks, passes and ourselves, so we thought we may as well exhaust the credit card too! The new strip we are living on has more outlets, fancy that!, so we figured it's our duty as Australian citizens to check out the competition, or more like spew at the prices!!!! The Nike clearance store, better prices than the outlet store, was our first stop. Glenn got some more clothes, kai too and a gridion ball, charli 2 pairs of jobbers, a pair for now and a pair a size bigger. Then we stopped at super target, oh yes folks it was SUPER!!!! Not only is it a target but it's a grocery store too! Nothing like grabbing a pair of shoes and a your meat all in the one store!!! (not that we did that, we did however grab a few items including a monster linnet of strawberries for $1.70 and a bag of grapes for $1.32, did I mention bananas are 52c a pound???? The kids have been loving their bananas, hope they dont expect that to last????? We drive a little bit up the road and ooh look, another Nike outlet and rack room! The rack room has become our most favorite shoe store, everythingbfrom nike, addidas and saucony to sandals heels and boots! Not only that it's buy one get 50% of your second!!! Ooh yeh, my new best friend! We bought 4 pairs this visit, 2 saucony's for me and a new balance and ASIC for lexi, u would be peeved if I told you how much I paid! The outlets we visited last week were next on the agenda, this time we parked near a security tower, don't want our purchases to wandering now do we??? So a few more shoes were based here plus a few other bits and pieces, and then it happened!!!! Omg, we were in guess, a new handbag and a pair of heels for mwah, when the sales girl says to me "I'm sorry but your credit card was declined" WHAT!!!!! Oh dear we have spent some money, not to worry we'll just transfer some more money over! Ahhhh that's better ;)crisis over people! That little incident kinda blew the wind outta my sail, so we headed back to the hotel so the kids could have a bit of a swim. We headed to dinner at 7, across the road to Denny's. Wow what a cheap meal, not exactly wholesome food, but tasty and cheap, we even squeezed in dessert and still got away with $10 a head! Back to the room we go, kids onto bed so we can pack! We now have 4 bags, which after a final count, will help transport our 37 pairs of shoes home!!!!! That doesn't include all the clothes and stuffed toys we have accumulated! Lol. The good nes is we are packed and there is a teensy little bit more room for emergency purchases ;)
I am so very excited for the cruise tomorrow, we have to have the car in cape canaveral by 10am so an early start tomorrow for us!
Till next time
Cheers
Chair xx
I am so very excited for the cruise tomorrow, we have to have the car in cape canaveral by 10am so an early start tomorrow for us!
Till next time
Cheers
Chair xx
Friday, September 30, 2011
Universal studios here we come!!! (again!)
I am writing this blog in the car driving back to our hotel, I've gotta make the most of sitting still for longer than 5 mins!!!!
This morning was a real struggle, for me and the kids, oh I could not open my eyes and they were all bloodshot, lol. We all dragged our sorry butts out of bed and headed downstairs for brekky, this hotel has complimentary brekky every morning, which makes the strat to our day just that little bit cheaper! We arrive at Universal studios right on opening, we had decided to go straight back into islands of adventure to do some of the rides we missed last time and revisit some of our favorites! Jurassic park was first then back to Harry potter, the kids went back on the Hippogriff and kalah I and I went back on the forbidden journey, scared the bejeebers out of me again but geez it's a great ride! While the kids re rode the Hippogriff I went to fetch some butter beer (such tourists). Then we headed into dr Seuss land, the kids favorite! Though my big girl had her big big girl britches on today and she took of with Glenn to attempt the hulk roller coaster!!! By the time we met up with them they had ridden it twice!!!! Now it's time to head to Universal and see what we can get up to in there! ( or should I say which child we can frighten!)First up was shrek 4d, Hahahaha so funny, the seats moved , dragon sneezed and we got covered in water (thank god!) but I won't spoil it too much for any of you who may get to enjoy this ride in the future. From there we made our way to twister, a simulation of a real twister, Glenn stayed with lexi it was very noisy and we got a bit wet but other than that ahhh I could take it or leave it. Then it was off to the mummy! Glenn was riding solo on this one, if u haven't worked out by now at I don't do roller coasters then NEWSFLASH Clair doesn't do roller coasters!!!! The kids and I sat in the shade, another scorcher today, Glenn being a single rider could jump straight to the front of the line, waiting waiting , far out the ride must b packed!!! About 15 mins later he comes out, calls us over to the other side of the road where he was waiting, it turns out he was gone for so long because he was stuck on the ride!!! Very close to the end but on his side of the car was a sheer 2 story drop! They offered him a fast pass but one wasn't really going to do us much good really! Onwards and upwards we go, I to kiddy town E.T was the next ride, pretty cool, a slow moving hanging style ride, u are in bikes (of course) trying to get E.T back home safely, very dark and lots of effects, nearly buckled kai (surprise surprise!) but a good ride all in all. Then we come to the climax of our day!!!! The Simpsons ride!!!! OMG (yep there's those words again!)now a simulated roller coaster IS my thing, cause I can close my eyes!!! Wow this ride has to be one of my favourites, if not THE favorite! A must do no matter how long u gotta wait if u ever visit universal studios! Woody wood peckers roller coaster was our last ride, and yes I say ours because after 2 rides I was dragged on by the kids! And guess what????? I survived, who knew? Lol, I guess though when 4 yr olds are riding it then it can't be too scary, STILL it's a coaster and I'm taking it!!!! The kids finished our universal day with a play in woody wood peckers playground and we were off! Oh no not home, come on peeps you should know us better than that by now!!!!! We went back to Islands of Adventure for one last hoorah! Kalahni and Glenn ride the hulk, AGAIN, and then low and behold but who decides they want a turn, noooooo not me, or kai (don't be silly!) CHARLI!!!!! So off they go, crazy wally's if you ask me! She loved it, go charli grace!!!!! Then It's off to our reason for coming back, the river rapid ride. At the last minute we had a scratching, nooooo not me, GLENN, precious didn't want to get wet :( so that leaves me to take the kids on it, oh goodness heaven help them! Hahahahahha ah laugh and laugh we did, get soaked, we did that too! Came off walking like we'd pooped ourselves, lol. Home James! Pweeease, I'm berry berry uncomfortable, "told u so" grumbles precious! Lexi has a meltdown cause she's wet, ah im pretty sure I told u u would get wet child!!!!! Of course as we are leaving we can't go past e hulk without one last ride!!! So Glenn racks up 6 rides, kalahni 5 and charli 2 , woohooo go team! Ok so now we actually leave the park! The trip home was interering, well I wasn't gping to wear wet pants home was I? So down they came, its ok I only pulled the bum part down, the front bum was covered! Geez what do you think I am?????? ;) so home we arrive, with no embarrassing exposures, shower then....... Yep u guessed it out we go, well the family's gotta eat! But not before a quick spot of shopping! A new bag must be purchased, oh yes it does! Then we get shoes more shoes, Glenn some clothes, me nothing :( zilch zero zip! What the???? No probes there's always tomorrow ;) mwahahahaha!! Dinner at 10pm (this is becoming a habit!) and now we are driving back to our hotel, mind you we are all so tired we are delirious!!! Cracking up at the silliest things, I've been booted to the back seat and Glenn and charli are attempting to drive us home, turn right Glenn, so he goes left!!!!! Arghhhhh remind me how old you are again please!???
So tomorrow is our last day on dry land and we plan to spend it shopping and maybe an afternoon visit to blizzard beach! Yeeha!
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx
This morning was a real struggle, for me and the kids, oh I could not open my eyes and they were all bloodshot, lol. We all dragged our sorry butts out of bed and headed downstairs for brekky, this hotel has complimentary brekky every morning, which makes the strat to our day just that little bit cheaper! We arrive at Universal studios right on opening, we had decided to go straight back into islands of adventure to do some of the rides we missed last time and revisit some of our favorites! Jurassic park was first then back to Harry potter, the kids went back on the Hippogriff and kalah I and I went back on the forbidden journey, scared the bejeebers out of me again but geez it's a great ride! While the kids re rode the Hippogriff I went to fetch some butter beer (such tourists). Then we headed into dr Seuss land, the kids favorite! Though my big girl had her big big girl britches on today and she took of with Glenn to attempt the hulk roller coaster!!! By the time we met up with them they had ridden it twice!!!! Now it's time to head to Universal and see what we can get up to in there! ( or should I say which child we can frighten!)First up was shrek 4d, Hahahaha so funny, the seats moved , dragon sneezed and we got covered in water (thank god!) but I won't spoil it too much for any of you who may get to enjoy this ride in the future. From there we made our way to twister, a simulation of a real twister, Glenn stayed with lexi it was very noisy and we got a bit wet but other than that ahhh I could take it or leave it. Then it was off to the mummy! Glenn was riding solo on this one, if u haven't worked out by now at I don't do roller coasters then NEWSFLASH Clair doesn't do roller coasters!!!! The kids and I sat in the shade, another scorcher today, Glenn being a single rider could jump straight to the front of the line, waiting waiting , far out the ride must b packed!!! About 15 mins later he comes out, calls us over to the other side of the road where he was waiting, it turns out he was gone for so long because he was stuck on the ride!!! Very close to the end but on his side of the car was a sheer 2 story drop! They offered him a fast pass but one wasn't really going to do us much good really! Onwards and upwards we go, I to kiddy town E.T was the next ride, pretty cool, a slow moving hanging style ride, u are in bikes (of course) trying to get E.T back home safely, very dark and lots of effects, nearly buckled kai (surprise surprise!) but a good ride all in all. Then we come to the climax of our day!!!! The Simpsons ride!!!! OMG (yep there's those words again!)now a simulated roller coaster IS my thing, cause I can close my eyes!!! Wow this ride has to be one of my favourites, if not THE favorite! A must do no matter how long u gotta wait if u ever visit universal studios! Woody wood peckers roller coaster was our last ride, and yes I say ours because after 2 rides I was dragged on by the kids! And guess what????? I survived, who knew? Lol, I guess though when 4 yr olds are riding it then it can't be too scary, STILL it's a coaster and I'm taking it!!!! The kids finished our universal day with a play in woody wood peckers playground and we were off! Oh no not home, come on peeps you should know us better than that by now!!!!! We went back to Islands of Adventure for one last hoorah! Kalahni and Glenn ride the hulk, AGAIN, and then low and behold but who decides they want a turn, noooooo not me, or kai (don't be silly!) CHARLI!!!!! So off they go, crazy wally's if you ask me! She loved it, go charli grace!!!!! Then It's off to our reason for coming back, the river rapid ride. At the last minute we had a scratching, nooooo not me, GLENN, precious didn't want to get wet :( so that leaves me to take the kids on it, oh goodness heaven help them! Hahahahahha ah laugh and laugh we did, get soaked, we did that too! Came off walking like we'd pooped ourselves, lol. Home James! Pweeease, I'm berry berry uncomfortable, "told u so" grumbles precious! Lexi has a meltdown cause she's wet, ah im pretty sure I told u u would get wet child!!!!! Of course as we are leaving we can't go past e hulk without one last ride!!! So Glenn racks up 6 rides, kalahni 5 and charli 2 , woohooo go team! Ok so now we actually leave the park! The trip home was interering, well I wasn't gping to wear wet pants home was I? So down they came, its ok I only pulled the bum part down, the front bum was covered! Geez what do you think I am?????? ;) so home we arrive, with no embarrassing exposures, shower then....... Yep u guessed it out we go, well the family's gotta eat! But not before a quick spot of shopping! A new bag must be purchased, oh yes it does! Then we get shoes more shoes, Glenn some clothes, me nothing :( zilch zero zip! What the???? No probes there's always tomorrow ;) mwahahahaha!! Dinner at 10pm (this is becoming a habit!) and now we are driving back to our hotel, mind you we are all so tired we are delirious!!! Cracking up at the silliest things, I've been booted to the back seat and Glenn and charli are attempting to drive us home, turn right Glenn, so he goes left!!!!! Arghhhhh remind me how old you are again please!???
So tomorrow is our last day on dry land and we plan to spend it shopping and maybe an afternoon visit to blizzard beach! Yeeha!
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx
Thursday, September 29, 2011
September 27th, 28th & 29th
Hello!!! I know I know I've gotten behind, again! But the last 3 days have been massive and I just didn't have a chance to write. Ut that's behind us now, I'm sitting here in our new abode in downtown Kissimmee, Orlando, sitting by the pool @ 9:30pm writing while Glenn and the kids have a splash. Still very warm even at this hr of the day!
TUESDAY
Today we went to Disneys Animal Kingdom! Our main reason for visiting was to do the African safari tour and let me tell you it didn't disappoint! Gerrod and Pam did their own thing today so Janet and Peter squished into our car and we spent a wonderful day together. So the African safari was amazing,we fast passed this ride, mind you it's the only ride so far we have fast passed! It's quite a popular ride and it was so hot we couldn't be bothered waiting in the qeue! You travel in jeeps across the "serengeti" and the animals are just roaming around minding their own business, it was such an amazing experience! We saw giraffes and elephants rhino's American crocs antelope wilder beast gazelles cheetahs hippo's a wart hog flamingo's ostrich's etc etc, we just missed the zebras and the lions, but that's ok it was fantastic to see what we did! Our driver was a bit crazy, all part of the show I guess? Lol. We took a little walk around the rest of the park, saw some naked mole rats, ewwwwwww those thi gs are gross!!!! Then Glenn and the new found daring Peter, tackled everest! Not the real one of course, the roller coaster kind! Omg , now I know I've said that alot in these blogs, but this one was something else, and that's just from what I could see! Janet and I and the kids stood in the blaring sun waiting waiting, camera in hand to catch some action shots, watching ride after after ride come zooming out of the mountain side, and the screams, deafening! Next thing you know Glenn is standing beside me, what the??? Yeh I missed them, oops, but they loved it, it went forwards backwards upside down straight down straight up etc etc, vomit!!!!! But u know my saying, whatever floats your boat, it certainly doesn't float mine!!!!!! Pretty much after that little adventure, and possibly a bot of heat stroke we decide to head off and shoot over to Disneys Blizzard Beach water park. By the time we got there, hired towels and a couple of lockers, we had about 2.5 hrs to play! We jump in the tube ride first to take a look around the park, you the ones that gently float you down the river, only this one you could get on and off wherever you liked so that was kinda like pur little motorway! We got off at twin slide ride that had 2 person tube. Janet and I sat the first ride out to watch them come out the bottom, they were mostly open slides thank goodness, as kai has a real thing for enclosed spaces now, thanks to space mountain!!! Lexi, our little dare devil, as you will discover further down the blog, loved it!!!! So Janet and I joined them on the second run. Now I am a little hesitant with anything I don't know much about so although it's just a water slide my heart was still pounding rather quickly! Kalahni decides she wants to take me down, sooooo on we get 3,2,1 off we go. Straight away there's a drop, I scream, kalahni laughs, up around the corner and whoosh down another drop, K A L A H N I!!!!! As I try to stick my feet against the walls, like that's gonna help! The drops stop we go whooshing down, whirling and twirling up the walls, laughing and laughing then we get spat out the bottom! I thought kalahni was going to die laughing at me! And although the top part was a bit hairy the bottom was most enjoyable!!! Lol, and just as I think wow that was fun, we go to another ride!!!! This time we head to the family raft ride, a huge tube that fits up to 6 people in it, we had 8 so 4 in each raft. No line up, we jump in our raft, which is on a conveyor belt, then it drops us off the edge and away we go! Of course I go backwards the it spins and I go sliding up the wall so much so that I'm looking down on Glenn Kalahni and Lexi, holding on for dear life!!!! But I had a great time!!! Then when we got down the bottom and I thought it was safe I let go, we hit a bump and I go flying across the raft, creating one massive wedgie!!!! I thought the others were seriously going to pee themselves laughing, ah it was so so funny !!! Now I have to ask, whose idea was it to go next on the slide raceway??? U know the one that has about 8 lanes and u go down on your tummy on a mat over bumps???? Yeh well I though ah this be a breeze, that was until I hit the first bump and built up speed, the second getting even faster and faster,mindd you Lexi was on it as was kai, well I'm screaming my head off, we all hit the bottom, everyone jumps up laughing and having a great time, I let out a few expletives and then want to vomit!!! Non the less I join them on the next ride, a twin slide, kinda like a race, u go down your tummy on a mat again, only this one snakes around like a slalom course, everyone goes down that leaves Pete and I to go, unfortunately the last ride completely rattled me so I chickened out :(, I know I'm such a whimp, but I felt so ill. I met them all in the wave pool for a quick swim b4 closing, boy did the kids give me a hard time, especially kai, he's one to talk!!!! Lol, now of course this day is going to smoothly of course so something's gotta go a miss sooner or later??? So let's rewind to when we arrived and got our lockers, Glenn and Peter have a key right? So Glenn attaches his to a tie on the inside of his pocket on his boardies, Peter doesn't have one of those! ........ Fast forward to end of day pack up, ummmm where's the key Pete???? Must have fallen out! His locker has the car keys, our camera!!!! Etc etc so waiting waiting for the master key to arrive, bingo! Now can we gooooo????? Of course there is no rest for the wicked in this town! We head straight back to the resort, shower and head back to Downtown Disney! Wow this place is fantastico! Shops, bars restaurants, lights, singing dancing ahhh the fun never ends in Disney world! Of course neither dies the walking, this place is a good couple of k's from ene to end and the restaurant I wanted to eat at was...... Yep u guessed it, at the total opposite end! The rainforest cafe, there is a storm every half hour and it rains, thunder and lightening, very spectacular I must say.So it should be when it cost me both arms and one leg for the bill!! ;)and thats a wrap, for Tuesday anyway, I think we arrived home around 11pm? Yawn yawn =O
WEDNESDAY
So today was the day we decided to head to the bike shop, Janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam leave us tomorrow until Sunday when we all meet up for the cruise, so it was peters last chance to get there! A couple of hours later, one bike, no not me, or Glenn (though he was eyeing one very very nice one off! Hellloooo we have a house to finish!), PETER!!! Oh yes he did, so he will be bringing a nice little package home, Janet is just over the moon, literally, she has run away!!!! Lol. So we take off while they sort out the bike, ooh did I mention what I got? A tri suit,sugoi cycling jersey,sugoi tri Knicks, 4 bottle fuel belt, and a Giro helmet, oh yes I did!!! How much u ask??? For all u tri enthusiasts out there you will appreciate this one......... Just under $300, oh yes it was!!!!!!!oh and that included a pair of sugoi knicks for Glenn! Hehehehehe that's all he got, not happy Jan! (between u and I, I was very happy!) so off we go, kids r bored out of their brains by now, though they did keep the staff very entertained, and starving! So back to Downtown Disney we go for some grub the off to typhoon lagoon, another of Disneys water parks! I love the park hopper tickets, and we added the water park option so basically we can go from park to park as often as we like in a 10 day period, super! Typhoon lagoon is the older of the 2 water parks, so thankfully for me the rides were all much tamer! Another family raft ride, which was quite short really but I laughed alot, I've just realized how much laughing I've done on this holiday, maybe I should ease up a bit, clearly I'm having way to much fun!!!! ;) there were a couple of tube slides and non tube slides and a speed slide that went through a tunnel straight down!!! Guess who went on that, 3X!!!! Noooo silly not me........... KAI!!!! Oh yes he did, when he said he wanted to go on it and Glenn took him up I thought Glenn was up for one big forehead slap from me whe. Kai popped out screaming at the bottom, but to my surprise, actually everyone's surprise, he popped out the bottom jumped up with that big kai grin, you know the one, and exclaimed "I wanna do that again!!!" you couldve knocked me down with a feather! so a few more times on that, and the other tube rides, we have a quick splash in th wave pool and it's closing time, locker key in hand, thank goodness, we're outta there. Home time? Not on your nelly! We are all dressed its 5 pm let's go to Epcot!!!! We're only going there for the night show really, a spot of dinner, a couple of rides later and a few continents, epcot is like an expo, so I've crossed a few other countries off my to do list now! Lol, oh and we caught up with Janet and Peter too! Just in time for the spectacular firework and lazer show, just amazing, well worth wandering around for 4 hrs to see! We did attempt to ride soarin, a virtual hangliding ride over the skies of California, but the line was over an hr wait long and all fast passes had been used, soaring was not to be :( Home James!!!! Yawn yawn yawn =O =O , oh and before beddy byes we have to pack!!! Arghhhhh
Today, THURSDAY!!!
We say goodbye to Janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam, they are taking a road trip down to Miami, we were meant to go but decided we'd prefer to not rush the kids through the theme parks and give them (and us) the best experience possible, and completely wear them out, lol! We will meet up with them again on Sunday when We board our Disney cruise, oh yes this holiday is proudly brought to you by Disney!!!!
We leave them trying to fit their bags into their boot, ha that was a sight to see, we would've stayed for the show but we figured it could go on for a while and we had to places to
Go! First stop, our new home for 3 nights, the royal park suites In Kissimmee, it's basically parallel to lake beuna vista and only 1 min further away from the parks, free breakfast and wi fi, cheerin! So we dump our bags and head off for the dance shop, to stock up o. Supplies for miss kalahni!!!! We leave there with 1 pair jazz boots, 1 pair ballets shoes, 2 leotards, 2 dance shorts, 4 pairs of stockings and a pair of jazz shoes for miss Lexi, and all for $230!!!! Everything was about 1/2 off what I pay at home, grrrrrrrr. From here our next stop is Disneys Hollywood studio, not a very big park and not a real lot to do, but the things we did do were very fun! The first ride was woody's roundup, they said an hr wait, and of course all fast passes were exhausted, but I reckon we waited maybe 1/2 hr, so that was ok, geez we havent had to line up for anything since we've been here, so I'm not complaining. It's a 3d ride, u sit in carts with your glasses on, get spun around and stop on every straight to shoot things, it's like carnival games, lots of fun and laughs to be had again, the kids thought it was great! From there it was off to the honey I shrunk the kids playground, the. The muppets 3d movie and finally the new star wars ride! Another 3d ride, u sit in a spacecraft, C3PO is the driver and u fly rather crazily through space and star wars scenes, it was so much fun!!! I loved it!!! Kai was very hesitant and even had a few tears before it started but once we took off he relaxed and it turned out to be his favorite ride!!!! Little miss Lexi, well she goes on anything, she's quite the dare devil so we have discovered on this holiday!!!!! While charli kai lexi and I go to the American idol experience, Glenn takes kalahni on her first twisting looping roller coaster, when we meet up with them she is very shaken and had been crying :( the poor thing, the whole thing was in the pitch black and went from 0-100 in 2 secs, the fastest coaster in America!!!! Whoops, I'm thinking our kids are gonna need therapy when we get back!!!! =O Time to leave, we decide to head back to downtown Disney for dinner and one last shopping expedition. Dinner was in T Rex, very similar to the rainforest cafe only dinosaurs, and every half hr a meteor shower occurred and the dinosaurs all got a little antsy! Very cool indeed! We finished off the shopping, lexi got a Minnie mouse, kalahni bought some pressies for all her friends birthdays she's missing and a few other bits and pieces and we headed for home. We checked in, found our room and then headed straight for the pool, it open till 11pm!!!! So that brings me to now, sitting in bed, everyone asleep but me, blogging! A quick shower then bed me thinks!!! It's 11:42pm, oh my goodness, nighty night!
Sorry this one is long, hopefully u drank your morning coffee or had your lunch or something as you read this, so u didn't waste too much of your day!!! Tomorrow takes us back to Universal Studio for our second day, we want to re visit some rides in Islands of Adventure and then go check out the other side! Sounds like another big day ahead :)
Until next time
Cheers
Clair xx
TUESDAY
Today we went to Disneys Animal Kingdom! Our main reason for visiting was to do the African safari tour and let me tell you it didn't disappoint! Gerrod and Pam did their own thing today so Janet and Peter squished into our car and we spent a wonderful day together. So the African safari was amazing,we fast passed this ride, mind you it's the only ride so far we have fast passed! It's quite a popular ride and it was so hot we couldn't be bothered waiting in the qeue! You travel in jeeps across the "serengeti" and the animals are just roaming around minding their own business, it was such an amazing experience! We saw giraffes and elephants rhino's American crocs antelope wilder beast gazelles cheetahs hippo's a wart hog flamingo's ostrich's etc etc, we just missed the zebras and the lions, but that's ok it was fantastic to see what we did! Our driver was a bit crazy, all part of the show I guess? Lol. We took a little walk around the rest of the park, saw some naked mole rats, ewwwwwww those thi gs are gross!!!! Then Glenn and the new found daring Peter, tackled everest! Not the real one of course, the roller coaster kind! Omg , now I know I've said that alot in these blogs, but this one was something else, and that's just from what I could see! Janet and I and the kids stood in the blaring sun waiting waiting, camera in hand to catch some action shots, watching ride after after ride come zooming out of the mountain side, and the screams, deafening! Next thing you know Glenn is standing beside me, what the??? Yeh I missed them, oops, but they loved it, it went forwards backwards upside down straight down straight up etc etc, vomit!!!!! But u know my saying, whatever floats your boat, it certainly doesn't float mine!!!!!! Pretty much after that little adventure, and possibly a bot of heat stroke we decide to head off and shoot over to Disneys Blizzard Beach water park. By the time we got there, hired towels and a couple of lockers, we had about 2.5 hrs to play! We jump in the tube ride first to take a look around the park, you the ones that gently float you down the river, only this one you could get on and off wherever you liked so that was kinda like pur little motorway! We got off at twin slide ride that had 2 person tube. Janet and I sat the first ride out to watch them come out the bottom, they were mostly open slides thank goodness, as kai has a real thing for enclosed spaces now, thanks to space mountain!!! Lexi, our little dare devil, as you will discover further down the blog, loved it!!!! So Janet and I joined them on the second run. Now I am a little hesitant with anything I don't know much about so although it's just a water slide my heart was still pounding rather quickly! Kalahni decides she wants to take me down, sooooo on we get 3,2,1 off we go. Straight away there's a drop, I scream, kalahni laughs, up around the corner and whoosh down another drop, K A L A H N I!!!!! As I try to stick my feet against the walls, like that's gonna help! The drops stop we go whooshing down, whirling and twirling up the walls, laughing and laughing then we get spat out the bottom! I thought kalahni was going to die laughing at me! And although the top part was a bit hairy the bottom was most enjoyable!!! Lol, and just as I think wow that was fun, we go to another ride!!!! This time we head to the family raft ride, a huge tube that fits up to 6 people in it, we had 8 so 4 in each raft. No line up, we jump in our raft, which is on a conveyor belt, then it drops us off the edge and away we go! Of course I go backwards the it spins and I go sliding up the wall so much so that I'm looking down on Glenn Kalahni and Lexi, holding on for dear life!!!! But I had a great time!!! Then when we got down the bottom and I thought it was safe I let go, we hit a bump and I go flying across the raft, creating one massive wedgie!!!! I thought the others were seriously going to pee themselves laughing, ah it was so so funny !!! Now I have to ask, whose idea was it to go next on the slide raceway??? U know the one that has about 8 lanes and u go down on your tummy on a mat over bumps???? Yeh well I though ah this be a breeze, that was until I hit the first bump and built up speed, the second getting even faster and faster,mindd you Lexi was on it as was kai, well I'm screaming my head off, we all hit the bottom, everyone jumps up laughing and having a great time, I let out a few expletives and then want to vomit!!! Non the less I join them on the next ride, a twin slide, kinda like a race, u go down your tummy on a mat again, only this one snakes around like a slalom course, everyone goes down that leaves Pete and I to go, unfortunately the last ride completely rattled me so I chickened out :(, I know I'm such a whimp, but I felt so ill. I met them all in the wave pool for a quick swim b4 closing, boy did the kids give me a hard time, especially kai, he's one to talk!!!! Lol, now of course this day is going to smoothly of course so something's gotta go a miss sooner or later??? So let's rewind to when we arrived and got our lockers, Glenn and Peter have a key right? So Glenn attaches his to a tie on the inside of his pocket on his boardies, Peter doesn't have one of those! ........ Fast forward to end of day pack up, ummmm where's the key Pete???? Must have fallen out! His locker has the car keys, our camera!!!! Etc etc so waiting waiting for the master key to arrive, bingo! Now can we gooooo????? Of course there is no rest for the wicked in this town! We head straight back to the resort, shower and head back to Downtown Disney! Wow this place is fantastico! Shops, bars restaurants, lights, singing dancing ahhh the fun never ends in Disney world! Of course neither dies the walking, this place is a good couple of k's from ene to end and the restaurant I wanted to eat at was...... Yep u guessed it, at the total opposite end! The rainforest cafe, there is a storm every half hour and it rains, thunder and lightening, very spectacular I must say.So it should be when it cost me both arms and one leg for the bill!! ;)and thats a wrap, for Tuesday anyway, I think we arrived home around 11pm? Yawn yawn =O
WEDNESDAY
So today was the day we decided to head to the bike shop, Janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam leave us tomorrow until Sunday when we all meet up for the cruise, so it was peters last chance to get there! A couple of hours later, one bike, no not me, or Glenn (though he was eyeing one very very nice one off! Hellloooo we have a house to finish!), PETER!!! Oh yes he did, so he will be bringing a nice little package home, Janet is just over the moon, literally, she has run away!!!! Lol. So we take off while they sort out the bike, ooh did I mention what I got? A tri suit,sugoi cycling jersey,sugoi tri Knicks, 4 bottle fuel belt, and a Giro helmet, oh yes I did!!! How much u ask??? For all u tri enthusiasts out there you will appreciate this one......... Just under $300, oh yes it was!!!!!!!oh and that included a pair of sugoi knicks for Glenn! Hehehehehe that's all he got, not happy Jan! (between u and I, I was very happy!) so off we go, kids r bored out of their brains by now, though they did keep the staff very entertained, and starving! So back to Downtown Disney we go for some grub the off to typhoon lagoon, another of Disneys water parks! I love the park hopper tickets, and we added the water park option so basically we can go from park to park as often as we like in a 10 day period, super! Typhoon lagoon is the older of the 2 water parks, so thankfully for me the rides were all much tamer! Another family raft ride, which was quite short really but I laughed alot, I've just realized how much laughing I've done on this holiday, maybe I should ease up a bit, clearly I'm having way to much fun!!!! ;) there were a couple of tube slides and non tube slides and a speed slide that went through a tunnel straight down!!! Guess who went on that, 3X!!!! Noooo silly not me........... KAI!!!! Oh yes he did, when he said he wanted to go on it and Glenn took him up I thought Glenn was up for one big forehead slap from me whe. Kai popped out screaming at the bottom, but to my surprise, actually everyone's surprise, he popped out the bottom jumped up with that big kai grin, you know the one, and exclaimed "I wanna do that again!!!" you couldve knocked me down with a feather! so a few more times on that, and the other tube rides, we have a quick splash in th wave pool and it's closing time, locker key in hand, thank goodness, we're outta there. Home time? Not on your nelly! We are all dressed its 5 pm let's go to Epcot!!!! We're only going there for the night show really, a spot of dinner, a couple of rides later and a few continents, epcot is like an expo, so I've crossed a few other countries off my to do list now! Lol, oh and we caught up with Janet and Peter too! Just in time for the spectacular firework and lazer show, just amazing, well worth wandering around for 4 hrs to see! We did attempt to ride soarin, a virtual hangliding ride over the skies of California, but the line was over an hr wait long and all fast passes had been used, soaring was not to be :( Home James!!!! Yawn yawn yawn =O =O , oh and before beddy byes we have to pack!!! Arghhhhh
Today, THURSDAY!!!
We say goodbye to Janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam, they are taking a road trip down to Miami, we were meant to go but decided we'd prefer to not rush the kids through the theme parks and give them (and us) the best experience possible, and completely wear them out, lol! We will meet up with them again on Sunday when We board our Disney cruise, oh yes this holiday is proudly brought to you by Disney!!!!
We leave them trying to fit their bags into their boot, ha that was a sight to see, we would've stayed for the show but we figured it could go on for a while and we had to places to
Go! First stop, our new home for 3 nights, the royal park suites In Kissimmee, it's basically parallel to lake beuna vista and only 1 min further away from the parks, free breakfast and wi fi, cheerin! So we dump our bags and head off for the dance shop, to stock up o. Supplies for miss kalahni!!!! We leave there with 1 pair jazz boots, 1 pair ballets shoes, 2 leotards, 2 dance shorts, 4 pairs of stockings and a pair of jazz shoes for miss Lexi, and all for $230!!!! Everything was about 1/2 off what I pay at home, grrrrrrrr. From here our next stop is Disneys Hollywood studio, not a very big park and not a real lot to do, but the things we did do were very fun! The first ride was woody's roundup, they said an hr wait, and of course all fast passes were exhausted, but I reckon we waited maybe 1/2 hr, so that was ok, geez we havent had to line up for anything since we've been here, so I'm not complaining. It's a 3d ride, u sit in carts with your glasses on, get spun around and stop on every straight to shoot things, it's like carnival games, lots of fun and laughs to be had again, the kids thought it was great! From there it was off to the honey I shrunk the kids playground, the. The muppets 3d movie and finally the new star wars ride! Another 3d ride, u sit in a spacecraft, C3PO is the driver and u fly rather crazily through space and star wars scenes, it was so much fun!!! I loved it!!! Kai was very hesitant and even had a few tears before it started but once we took off he relaxed and it turned out to be his favorite ride!!!! Little miss Lexi, well she goes on anything, she's quite the dare devil so we have discovered on this holiday!!!!! While charli kai lexi and I go to the American idol experience, Glenn takes kalahni on her first twisting looping roller coaster, when we meet up with them she is very shaken and had been crying :( the poor thing, the whole thing was in the pitch black and went from 0-100 in 2 secs, the fastest coaster in America!!!! Whoops, I'm thinking our kids are gonna need therapy when we get back!!!! =O Time to leave, we decide to head back to downtown Disney for dinner and one last shopping expedition. Dinner was in T Rex, very similar to the rainforest cafe only dinosaurs, and every half hr a meteor shower occurred and the dinosaurs all got a little antsy! Very cool indeed! We finished off the shopping, lexi got a Minnie mouse, kalahni bought some pressies for all her friends birthdays she's missing and a few other bits and pieces and we headed for home. We checked in, found our room and then headed straight for the pool, it open till 11pm!!!! So that brings me to now, sitting in bed, everyone asleep but me, blogging! A quick shower then bed me thinks!!! It's 11:42pm, oh my goodness, nighty night!
Sorry this one is long, hopefully u drank your morning coffee or had your lunch or something as you read this, so u didn't waste too much of your day!!! Tomorrow takes us back to Universal Studio for our second day, we want to re visit some rides in Islands of Adventure and then go check out the other side! Sounds like another big day ahead :)
Until next time
Cheers
Clair xx
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday September 26th - Universal Studios
Today was unreal beyond words!!!! But let's start at the beginning and we'll get to the exciting part!
Up at 7, after a restless night with Lexi, she's still mot 100%. We were out the door by 8:30! What the? Unheard of on this holiday so far, lol. We head down to reception and buy the tickets for Universal Studios, our park of choice today. Janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam all got a 1 day pass as they only have 2 days left here, Glenn and I and the kids all got 2 day passes as we don't head off till Sunday. For those of you who don't know, on Sunday we head to Cape Canaveral to get on our Disney cruise, but janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam head down to Miami on thursday.
We arrive at Universal Studios right at opening time, 9am, yay us!!!! Universal Studios is broken up into 2 islands as such, u have Universal on the right and Islands of adventure on the left, we decided to do Islands of Adventure first because of Harry Potter land, a no brained really! Well what can I say, OMG!!!! It's amazing, exactly like the movies!!!! There are 3 rides in Harry Potter land, the duelling dragons, a twin roller coaster that twist and turns, the flight of the Hippogriff, a kid friendly gentler roller coaster and Harry Potter the Forbidden Journey (when we first arrived we didn't know what this ride entailed, so I'll explain further along). When you first enter you come face to face with the hogswart express, very cool. Then u enter Diagon Alley, there's honey dukes (lolly shop) the 3 broomsticks (restaurant) the post office, Olivanders (the wand shop) and 3 or 4 carts selling butter beer (the beverage of choice for hogswart students), yummo! Think icy butterscotch with a fluffy vanilla top on it! Once u get to the end of Diagon Alley u hit......... The Castle!!! Wow, it just blew me away! There weren't too many people there yet so we decided to hit the rides first and then check out the shops. Speaking of crowds, I'm not sure if I have mentioned the lack of them so far this trip? It's been fantastic, so much so that if we have to wait any longer than 15 mins for a ride we come back later! Now I'm told in peak season u can be waiting hours!!!!! So if you're ever thinking of doing Orlando, and I'd certain ky recommend it, then September is the time to do it!!!! Anyways back to the rides..........
So the forbidden journey was first up, Glenn Peter Gerrod and Pam were up for it, the kids not so much and me with my major fear of the unknown wasn't attempting it till I knew every finer detail about it! So Janet and I stay with the kids. We wait just outside the castle which I'd opposite the flight of the Hippogriff, after watching it a few times the girls start to eye it off. "u two go on it while we are waiting!" "ok!!!" and they're off. When they get off they are raving about it, next thing u know Lexi is mum I want to go on it, then kai says "me too!" (hmmm u sure about that buddy???) the other riders come out from the castle, Gerrod "wow that's cool I've experienced nothing like it!, dads a bit green though!" hmmmmm. Glenn, looking a bit pale and shocked "that was amazing, took me back a bit!" then Peter comes out " well that was interesting, throws unaround a bit, I feel a bit crook" ok so that me out!!!!!
Lexi "dad dad I want to go on that!" points to the roller coaster, so off they go the girls Glenn and lexi Gerrod and Kai. They survive, even kai and noooooo tears!!! Butter beer is next on the agenda as the duelling dragons is all we have left and I sure as hell know I'm not going on that!!!! Seriously the butter beer is yum!!!! It tastes like butter scotch! I got the frozen one but there was a normal one too. Glenn and Peter (gluton for punishment really) go on the dueling dragons, basically it's coasters that are identical but the twist and turn around each other, completely freaked me out just watching, but whatever floats your boat I say......... The kids and Janet and I stayed in Diagon alley and checked out the shops, honey dukes was our first (and only) stop, checking out all the sweets and what we would purchase later, you've gotta try these things! The boys come off, Peter a little shaken, Glenn was in his element (crazy). By now I had Lexi asking every 10 seconds "when are going to dr suess??" so I don't have to tell u where we went next! First stop was a train ride, kinda like a little kiddy roller coaster, charli and I were in the first carriage, we even worked up the courage to put our hands in the air!!!! Bahahahahahaha, ahhh kai and lexi loved it, and really it's kinda my speed! Then we go on the carousel and one fish two fish red fish blue fish, like the dumbo ride at Disney o ly you're in fish and there is water spuritn out at regular intervals and you gotta try to stay out of the way! Well, my driver, lexi, wasn't so good at that and yep I ended up soaked! Lots of fun though and she had a ball, as did kai riding on his own. Then straight to the cat in the hat, a cart that seats 6 people and it takes u around on a track going through the scenes of the book, what they fail tom tell u is that it spins around and jerks you this way and that! Then u go into a dark room and it spins spins spins some more!!!! Oh we thought kai was going to have a heart, the rest of us just laughed laughed. It turns out kai actually really like it, shock horror! Ok so enough kiddy stuff, it's time for a real mans ride, the hulk is next. A stomach churning roller coaster, and thats just from the ground! Glenn Gerrod and Pam go and enjoy that one, I got some rippa pics of them on it! Then lunch, and the kids have a slash around in a kids play area in dr suess land. By the time we finished lunch they were soaked! but cool, was very hot again today. Off to toon lagoon and this time kalahni Glenn Janet and Peter go on the splash mountain ride, ha got some more very unflattering photos of Janet on this one! We then move on into Jurassic park, the kids did some rock climbing, kai ended up with quite a crowd standing around watching him as he slowly made his way to the very top, all the while saying "I can't", to ring the bell, and when he did everyone clapped! The girls had fun challenging themselves too, kalahni was up and down like spiderman! The rapids was the next ride of choice but we couldn't find it, then we discovered it was back in toon lagoon! Back we go only to discover it was closed!!!! Grrrrr
By now the kids are dried off a little so we decide to attempt the spiderman ride, a 3d simulated style ride, I was a bit hesitant but after speaking to the ride man and he assuring me lexi would be fine, I though ahhh toughen up princess let's do this! Of course kai went into meltdown mode so Glenn stayed with him and the girls and I went in, geez I hope lexi can look after herself! Lol. Ahhhh it was unreal!!!!! I had to close my eyes a couple of times, as did lexi, but I survived! The girls, Inc lexi took Glenn on while I stayed with kai. When Glenn got off he said that if I liked that then I could definately handle the Harry potter
ride, hmmmmm we'll see!
The rest of the day, well the last 3 opening hrs, we revisited the kids favorite rides and shopped. Our day ended at Harry potter, yep I went on that damn ride! Alone mind u cause kalahni wouldn't come! I felt sick waiting in that line BUT as Glenn promised I'm so glad I did it!!!!! It was amazing, I got to experience flying on a broomstick (yes believe it or not I've never done that before, it's not my first mode of transport!) play quitich, get chased. Y dragons and dementors and huge spiders!!!! All the while being tipped upside down and sie to side, it was so much fun!!!! When I cam out the usual Orlando storm had hit so it was pouring and all the outdoor rides were closed, no flight of the Hippogriff for me, and just when I was getting into the swing of things!!!! When I found the others I told kalahni she had to do it, and that charli would love it too, especially if they loved spiderman!!! They both agreed, Glenn took them on and guess what???? They....................loved it too!!!! Phew, lol
After a bit of shopping it wa time to leave, just outside the park they have a downtown area so we grabbed a bite to eat there, hang on it's only 7pm, we don't do dinner till 10!!!! So when we pulled up at the resort just after 8 we where cheering!!!! Yet still here I am at 11:15 pm writing this blog! Ah it was great to have a big day and then be home and ready for bed at a reasonable hour!
Tomorrow sees us heading to Disneys Animal Kingdom in the morning and then possibly a water park in The arvo ???? I guess you'll find out tomorrow, as will we! Lol
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx
p.s Universal is all over Disneys magic kingdom, just sayin ;)
p.s.s now I've read the preview, my apologies for the damn typo's!!!!!! :(
Up at 7, after a restless night with Lexi, she's still mot 100%. We were out the door by 8:30! What the? Unheard of on this holiday so far, lol. We head down to reception and buy the tickets for Universal Studios, our park of choice today. Janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam all got a 1 day pass as they only have 2 days left here, Glenn and I and the kids all got 2 day passes as we don't head off till Sunday. For those of you who don't know, on Sunday we head to Cape Canaveral to get on our Disney cruise, but janet, Peter, Gerrod and Pam head down to Miami on thursday.
We arrive at Universal Studios right at opening time, 9am, yay us!!!! Universal Studios is broken up into 2 islands as such, u have Universal on the right and Islands of adventure on the left, we decided to do Islands of Adventure first because of Harry Potter land, a no brained really! Well what can I say, OMG!!!! It's amazing, exactly like the movies!!!! There are 3 rides in Harry Potter land, the duelling dragons, a twin roller coaster that twist and turns, the flight of the Hippogriff, a kid friendly gentler roller coaster and Harry Potter the Forbidden Journey (when we first arrived we didn't know what this ride entailed, so I'll explain further along). When you first enter you come face to face with the hogswart express, very cool. Then u enter Diagon Alley, there's honey dukes (lolly shop) the 3 broomsticks (restaurant) the post office, Olivanders (the wand shop) and 3 or 4 carts selling butter beer (the beverage of choice for hogswart students), yummo! Think icy butterscotch with a fluffy vanilla top on it! Once u get to the end of Diagon Alley u hit......... The Castle!!! Wow, it just blew me away! There weren't too many people there yet so we decided to hit the rides first and then check out the shops. Speaking of crowds, I'm not sure if I have mentioned the lack of them so far this trip? It's been fantastic, so much so that if we have to wait any longer than 15 mins for a ride we come back later! Now I'm told in peak season u can be waiting hours!!!!! So if you're ever thinking of doing Orlando, and I'd certain ky recommend it, then September is the time to do it!!!! Anyways back to the rides..........
So the forbidden journey was first up, Glenn Peter Gerrod and Pam were up for it, the kids not so much and me with my major fear of the unknown wasn't attempting it till I knew every finer detail about it! So Janet and I stay with the kids. We wait just outside the castle which I'd opposite the flight of the Hippogriff, after watching it a few times the girls start to eye it off. "u two go on it while we are waiting!" "ok!!!" and they're off. When they get off they are raving about it, next thing u know Lexi is mum I want to go on it, then kai says "me too!" (hmmm u sure about that buddy???) the other riders come out from the castle, Gerrod "wow that's cool I've experienced nothing like it!, dads a bit green though!" hmmmmm. Glenn, looking a bit pale and shocked "that was amazing, took me back a bit!" then Peter comes out " well that was interesting, throws unaround a bit, I feel a bit crook" ok so that me out!!!!!
Lexi "dad dad I want to go on that!" points to the roller coaster, so off they go the girls Glenn and lexi Gerrod and Kai. They survive, even kai and noooooo tears!!! Butter beer is next on the agenda as the duelling dragons is all we have left and I sure as hell know I'm not going on that!!!! Seriously the butter beer is yum!!!! It tastes like butter scotch! I got the frozen one but there was a normal one too. Glenn and Peter (gluton for punishment really) go on the dueling dragons, basically it's coasters that are identical but the twist and turn around each other, completely freaked me out just watching, but whatever floats your boat I say......... The kids and Janet and I stayed in Diagon alley and checked out the shops, honey dukes was our first (and only) stop, checking out all the sweets and what we would purchase later, you've gotta try these things! The boys come off, Peter a little shaken, Glenn was in his element (crazy). By now I had Lexi asking every 10 seconds "when are going to dr suess??" so I don't have to tell u where we went next! First stop was a train ride, kinda like a little kiddy roller coaster, charli and I were in the first carriage, we even worked up the courage to put our hands in the air!!!! Bahahahahahaha, ahhh kai and lexi loved it, and really it's kinda my speed! Then we go on the carousel and one fish two fish red fish blue fish, like the dumbo ride at Disney o ly you're in fish and there is water spuritn out at regular intervals and you gotta try to stay out of the way! Well, my driver, lexi, wasn't so good at that and yep I ended up soaked! Lots of fun though and she had a ball, as did kai riding on his own. Then straight to the cat in the hat, a cart that seats 6 people and it takes u around on a track going through the scenes of the book, what they fail tom tell u is that it spins around and jerks you this way and that! Then u go into a dark room and it spins spins spins some more!!!! Oh we thought kai was going to have a heart, the rest of us just laughed laughed. It turns out kai actually really like it, shock horror! Ok so enough kiddy stuff, it's time for a real mans ride, the hulk is next. A stomach churning roller coaster, and thats just from the ground! Glenn Gerrod and Pam go and enjoy that one, I got some rippa pics of them on it! Then lunch, and the kids have a slash around in a kids play area in dr suess land. By the time we finished lunch they were soaked! but cool, was very hot again today. Off to toon lagoon and this time kalahni Glenn Janet and Peter go on the splash mountain ride, ha got some more very unflattering photos of Janet on this one! We then move on into Jurassic park, the kids did some rock climbing, kai ended up with quite a crowd standing around watching him as he slowly made his way to the very top, all the while saying "I can't", to ring the bell, and when he did everyone clapped! The girls had fun challenging themselves too, kalahni was up and down like spiderman! The rapids was the next ride of choice but we couldn't find it, then we discovered it was back in toon lagoon! Back we go only to discover it was closed!!!! Grrrrr
By now the kids are dried off a little so we decide to attempt the spiderman ride, a 3d simulated style ride, I was a bit hesitant but after speaking to the ride man and he assuring me lexi would be fine, I though ahhh toughen up princess let's do this! Of course kai went into meltdown mode so Glenn stayed with him and the girls and I went in, geez I hope lexi can look after herself! Lol. Ahhhh it was unreal!!!!! I had to close my eyes a couple of times, as did lexi, but I survived! The girls, Inc lexi took Glenn on while I stayed with kai. When Glenn got off he said that if I liked that then I could definately handle the Harry potter
ride, hmmmmm we'll see!
The rest of the day, well the last 3 opening hrs, we revisited the kids favorite rides and shopped. Our day ended at Harry potter, yep I went on that damn ride! Alone mind u cause kalahni wouldn't come! I felt sick waiting in that line BUT as Glenn promised I'm so glad I did it!!!!! It was amazing, I got to experience flying on a broomstick (yes believe it or not I've never done that before, it's not my first mode of transport!) play quitich, get chased. Y dragons and dementors and huge spiders!!!! All the while being tipped upside down and sie to side, it was so much fun!!!! When I cam out the usual Orlando storm had hit so it was pouring and all the outdoor rides were closed, no flight of the Hippogriff for me, and just when I was getting into the swing of things!!!! When I found the others I told kalahni she had to do it, and that charli would love it too, especially if they loved spiderman!!! They both agreed, Glenn took them on and guess what???? They....................loved it too!!!! Phew, lol
After a bit of shopping it wa time to leave, just outside the park they have a downtown area so we grabbed a bite to eat there, hang on it's only 7pm, we don't do dinner till 10!!!! So when we pulled up at the resort just after 8 we where cheering!!!! Yet still here I am at 11:15 pm writing this blog! Ah it was great to have a big day and then be home and ready for bed at a reasonable hour!
Tomorrow sees us heading to Disneys Animal Kingdom in the morning and then possibly a water park in The arvo ???? I guess you'll find out tomorrow, as will we! Lol
Till next time
Cheers
Clair xx
p.s Universal is all over Disneys magic kingdom, just sayin ;)
p.s.s now I've read the preview, my apologies for the damn typo's!!!!!! :(
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday Sept 25th
So last night Glenn and I made a deal that we would be out the door earlier today, ther just isn't enough time in the day when your day isn't starting till 10/11! Then we discover that some of the shops we wanted to visit aren't open on a Sunday and the others open at 10! Damn, still we were up by 7:30, kai struggled this morning, and we were out the door by 9am and headed for walmart! There were a Copley f grocery items we needed including medicine, my baby girl has a nasty nasty cough :( not very surprising though when in Vegas and here u are outside in the stinking heat and then walk inside to the freezing cold!!!! And when you're consistently all day in and out in and out, someone was bound to get sick, poor lexi. Anyway back to walmart, OMG that place is amazing!!!! Imagine kmart and Coles as one big shop and there u have Walmart! We scanned the grocery section first, a case of corona's $23, bud lite $12, 6 pack of bitch pops $12!!!!!! 500ml bottle of Gatorade, u ready for this one?.......78c, ooh u bet ya baby, thinking of sending a container ship of the stuff home!!!!! For u non Gatorade drinkers we pay around $3.50. It's coming up to Halloween so u can imagine the stuff in the stores, if only I knew what fancy dress party's I had coming up , there are some cool costumes!!!!! So we made a few purchases, got lexi some medicine, they are little sachets of orange flavored dissolvable crystals, how cool is that!!!! The best part, it actually stops her coughing, who knew there was actually a medicine out there that did that??? ;)
Well the outlets open at 10 so come on gang let's get a move on!! These ones were identical to Vegas, only a little larger (what a shame) so we knew which shops to visit! 5 hours later, 4 tired kids and numerous bags, we head home! We mostly bought shoes, we have discovered kai has a show fetish, so far he has bought 4 pairs and it would of been more only I said no! However we still have 2 weeks left so anything is possible I guess! Glenn left with quite a few parcels too, I think lexi was the only one that missed out today, she's not much of a shopper........YET! Now believe it or not but the highlight of our day today was walking back to our car, yep had me shaking in my boots and my heart beating harder than pharlaps (back In The day).We could hear a car alarm going off, so instinctively u look over to check out which car etc, there is this guy with is backside hanging out the car, he was reaching into the backseat, just as Glenn says "is that even his car?" he backs out with numerous bags in his hands them proceeds to shove them through the window of the car next to him "ummm nope I don't think so!" in he goes again for a second grab, "holy s*#t, he's robbing that car!!!! Just keep walking kids don't look at him!!!" mind you there where other people around, cars driving past etc, so brazen, but he never looked up and certainly wasn't rushing! Please tell me u hid all our parcels Glenn!!!! We had done a parcel dump too, but thankfully our car wasn't as swish as the one he was breaking in to. It's obviously a regular occurrence at the outlet as the other side of the carpark has a security podium type thing with 2 security guards keeping watch over the cars, hmmmm so tell me why our side didn't have one????? I feel so bad for the people who owned that car, man he grabbed some bags!!!! But like Glenn said, what could we do? If we said anything he'd probably pull a hand gun on us (or perhaps we watch too much telly?)
So that brings us to the present, I am sitting by the pool blogging, the kids are having a ball on the slippery dip that is in the pirate ship (check fb later for a pic, I can't post photos on here. Glenn and I are enjoying a bud lite and sweating in the humidity, sooooo humid we are just constantly sweating!!!! Time for another dip me thinks! No plans for tonight, and Universal Islands of Adventure tomorrow!!!! here we come Harry!! Hoping for an early night too, ha wishful thinking!!! Lol
Until next time
Cheers
Clair xx
p.s apologies again for all the errors and auto corrections that I didn't want!!!!
Well the outlets open at 10 so come on gang let's get a move on!! These ones were identical to Vegas, only a little larger (what a shame) so we knew which shops to visit! 5 hours later, 4 tired kids and numerous bags, we head home! We mostly bought shoes, we have discovered kai has a show fetish, so far he has bought 4 pairs and it would of been more only I said no! However we still have 2 weeks left so anything is possible I guess! Glenn left with quite a few parcels too, I think lexi was the only one that missed out today, she's not much of a shopper........YET! Now believe it or not but the highlight of our day today was walking back to our car, yep had me shaking in my boots and my heart beating harder than pharlaps (back In The day).We could hear a car alarm going off, so instinctively u look over to check out which car etc, there is this guy with is backside hanging out the car, he was reaching into the backseat, just as Glenn says "is that even his car?" he backs out with numerous bags in his hands them proceeds to shove them through the window of the car next to him "ummm nope I don't think so!" in he goes again for a second grab, "holy s*#t, he's robbing that car!!!! Just keep walking kids don't look at him!!!" mind you there where other people around, cars driving past etc, so brazen, but he never looked up and certainly wasn't rushing! Please tell me u hid all our parcels Glenn!!!! We had done a parcel dump too, but thankfully our car wasn't as swish as the one he was breaking in to. It's obviously a regular occurrence at the outlet as the other side of the carpark has a security podium type thing with 2 security guards keeping watch over the cars, hmmmm so tell me why our side didn't have one????? I feel so bad for the people who owned that car, man he grabbed some bags!!!! But like Glenn said, what could we do? If we said anything he'd probably pull a hand gun on us (or perhaps we watch too much telly?)
So that brings us to the present, I am sitting by the pool blogging, the kids are having a ball on the slippery dip that is in the pirate ship (check fb later for a pic, I can't post photos on here. Glenn and I are enjoying a bud lite and sweating in the humidity, sooooo humid we are just constantly sweating!!!! Time for another dip me thinks! No plans for tonight, and Universal Islands of Adventure tomorrow!!!! here we come Harry!! Hoping for an early night too, ha wishful thinking!!! Lol
Until next time
Cheers
Clair xx
p.s apologies again for all the errors and auto corrections that I didn't want!!!!
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